Somnium Scipionis, Part XXVI

“Since it is evident that this is eternal which is moved by its very self, who is there who denies that this nature has been given to souls? For everything which is driven by an external push is inanimate, but that which is animal, it is moved by its own and inner motion; for this is the peculiar nature and power of the soul; which, if it is one from all which moves itself, it is both certainly not born and it is eternal.

“You exercise this in the noblest things! But noblest are the cares concerning the prosperity of the fatherland, the soul driven and exercised by which will fly more swiftly into this seat and its own home; and it will do this more swiftly, if now, then, since it has been enclosed in the body, it will project out through the doors, and, contemplating those things which will be outside, as greatly as possible, it will drag itself away from the body. For the souls of those who have given themselves over to the pleasures of the body and put themselves forth as if servants of these things and violated the laws of gods and men by the impulse of lusts obedient to pleasures, having slipped away from the body they are rolled around the earth itself, nor do they return into this place except having been disturbed for many ages.”

He departed; I was released from my dream.

Somnium Scipionis, Part XXV

“For that which is always moved is eternal; but that which bears its movement to anything and that which itself is driven from another place, since it has an end of movement, it is necessary that it has an end of living. Therefore that which moves itself alone, since it is never left off from itself, not even does it ever desist from being moved; indeed for certain things which move themselves, this fountain, that beginning, is of moving. But there is no origin of the beginning; for all things rise from the beginning, but it itself is able to be born from no other thing; for this would not be a beginning which is born from something else; but if it never arises, nor indeed does it die anywhere. For, the beginning extinguished, neither will it itself be reborn by another, nor will it create another from itself, if indeed it is necessary that all things arise from a beginning. Thus it happens that the beginning of movement is from this thing which itself is moved by itself; this however is neither able to be born or to die; or else it is necessary that the whole heaven fall and that all nature stop and that it does not obtain any force by which, having been struck from the beginning, it is moved.

Somnium Scipionis, Part XXIV

Which things, when he had said them, I say, “I truly, Africanus, if indeed, to those deserving well of the fatherland, the approach of heaven lies open as if a path, although I, having entered upon the steps of my father and upon yours from boyhood, have not been lacking from your glory, now nevertheless, with so great a reward having been placed before me, I shall strive much more vigilantly.” And that one, “You truly strive and thus have that you are not mortal but your body is; for you are not that which that form of yours declares, but the mind of every man is each man, not this figure which is able to be pointed out with a finger. Therefore know that you are a god, if indeed a god is one who flourishes, who feels, who remembers, who foresees, who rules and regulates and moves this body over which he has been placed in charge, which just as the supreme god does this universe; and as the eternal god himself moves the mortal universe from a certain part, thus does the everlasting mind move its fragile body.

Somnium Scipionis, Part XXIII

“Wherefore if you will despair of a return into this place, in which all things are for great and outstanding men, of how little value at last is that glory of men which can hardly extend to the small part of a single year? Therefore if you will wish to look on high and gaze at this seat and eternal home, you should not give yourself over to conversations of the crowd, nor should you place hope of your things in human rewards; it is necessary that virtue itself draw you to true glory with its own enticements; what others might be saying about you, let them themselves see to it, but they will speak nevertheless. But all speech, even that, is girded by these narrow strips of the regions which you see, never about anybody was it everlasting, it is overwhelmed by the destruction of men, and it is extinguished by the forgetfulness of prosperity.”

Somnium Scipionis, Part XII

“For men commonly measure the year by the return of only the sun, that is of one star; in the affair itself, however, when all the stars return to the same place whence they set out, and after long intervals they will have brought back the same description of the entire heaven, then that can truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many generations of men are held. For as, formerly, when the soul of Romulus entered into this temple itself, the sun seemed to men to desert and be extinguished, whenever, from the same part and at the same time, the sun will have deserted again, then, with all the constellations and stars having been called back to the same beginning, have a completed year; indeed know that of this year a twentieth part has not yet completed.

Somnium Scipionis, Part XXI

“Moreover, if that generation of future men should wish to hand down the taken praises of each one of us from their fathers to their descendants, nevertheless because of the inundations and conflagrations of the lands, which it is necessary happen at a certain time, we are not able to achieve not only an eternal glory, but not even a long lasting one. But what does it matter that there will be discussion concerning you by those who will be born afterwards, since there was none by them who were born before, who where not fewer, and who were certainly better men; particularly since, among those men themselves from whom our name is able to be heard, no one could retain memory of one year?

Somnium Scipionis, Part XX

“But you see this same earth girded and surrounded as if by certain belts, from which you see that two, greatly opposite to each other and resting upon the poles themselves of heaven from either part, stiffen with frost, while you see that that middle and greatest one is scorched by the flame of the sun. Two are habitable, of which that southern one, men who stand on which plant their feet opposite to yours, has nothing to your race; but this other one adjacent to the north, which you inhabit, see in how slight part it touches you. For the entire earth which is inhabited by you, narrowed in the poles, broader in the sides, is a certain small island, surrounded by that sea which you in the lands call the Atlantic, the great, the Ocean, which, of such a great name, you see how small it is.

“From these cultivated and known lands themselves, could either your name or the name of anyone of us either pass this Caucasus, which you see, or swim across that Ganges? Who in the remaining farthest parts of the rising or falling sun or of the north or the south will hear your name? Which regions having been cut off you indeed see in how narrow straits your glory wishes that it be extended. But the men themselves who speak of us, how long will they speak?